Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 31, 1914
Walsenburg, Colorado – Mother Jones Confined in Dark Cellar Cell
From Denver’s United Labor Bulletin of March 28, 1914:
Note: Mother was arrested at Walsenburg by the Colorado militia on Monday March 23rd, at about 5:30 a. m. She has been confined, since that time, in the same dark cold cellar cell that was the cause of the death of striking miner Kostas Marcos.
—————
From The Masses of February 1914: Mother Jones by Art Young
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 10, 1914 “Why, Governor Ammons?” by Mrs. Lizabeth A. Williams
From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of March 7, 1914:
WHY, GOVERNOR AMMONS? -by Mrs. Lizabeth A. Williams
Oh, what has become of your once fair name, That is doomed to die in disgrace and shame, Governor Ammons? Why cease the whir of our industry’s wheel, Why end the output of iron and steel, Why call for arms, so that labor should kneel, Governor Ammons?
[…..]
Your victims are tortured, hungry and cold, Truth has been crushed, our rights have been sold, Governor Ammons. A white-haired mother, in her eighty-one, Long a victim of your bayonet and gun, What would your soul do if you were her son, Governor Ammons?
Your reign of injustice will soon be o’er, Your cossacks will ride on their raids no more, Governor Ammons. Our martyred ballots took our rights away, Your blood-stained power we have felt each day, Before the Judge of All what will you say, Governor Ammons?
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 5, 1920
Centralia, Washington – The Story of Blind Tom Lassiter
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of April 28, 1920:
BLIND NEWSBOY VICTIM SECOND CENTRALIA MOB
—–
Because Tom Lassiter Sold Union Records and Butte Bulletins
Super-Patriots of Lumber Town Maltreated Him.
—–
(By JOHN NICHOLAS BEFFEL.) (Staff Correspondent, the Federated Press.)
Centralia, Wash., (By Mail).-It was the second of the three Centralia mobs that got Blind Tom Lassiter, newsboy.His crime was that he sold the Seattle Union Record, workers’ newspaper, and was a wobbly. Twice the mob burned all his possessions, then kidnaped him on the open street, and sped with him to another county.
Gov. Louis F. Hart knows the facts of this flagrant case. They were presented to him, substantiated by affidavits of reputable eye-witnesses. But the men who abused and exiled Lassiter, a law-abiding American citizen, have never been prosecuted.
Prosecuting Attorney Herman Allen of Lewis county knows the facts. They were presented to him with similar affidavits. But Allen has never taken any steps to punish the guilty men.
Judge John M. Wilson, who tried the ten I. W. W. in the Centralia labor case at Montesano, knows the facts about the Lassiter episode. They were offered to him in detail by Defense Counsel George F. Vanderveer. Those facts ought, by every tenet of justice, have been given to the jury. But the court said no.
So the story of what happened to Blind Tom Lassiter is little known outside of Centralia. Mention of it crept occasionally into the news stories published in perhaps four newspapers across the country; but its real significance needs to be made clear.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 28, 1920
Chehalis, Washington – Mike Sheehan and Elmer Smith Back Behind Bars
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of April 23, 1920:
CHEHALIS JAILOR CHARY ABOUT RECEIVING VISITS
———-
Correspondent Tells of Conditions in Prison Where
Victims of Centralia Lumber Barons Were Confined
—–
(By John Nicholas Beffel.)
Centralia, Wash.-It’s difficult to get into the decrepit old jail at Chehalis unless you are a Wobbly. I wanted to get inside, but Sheriff John Berry wouldn’t let me. He was firm about it, and a bit peevish. Sanitary conditions within were a delicate subject, a cause for official sensitiveness.
That jail has an important relation to the Centralia tragedy story. Some of the I. W. W. defendants consented to make statements while confined there. Mrs. Mary McAllister, one of the vital witnesses for the defense, who testified that Eugene Barnett was in the Roderick hotel during the rioting and not in the Avalon hotel, was held in the Chehalis jail twenty days without warrant or charge, and then released.
And now Mike Sheehan and Elmer Smith, acquitted at Montesano, were back at Chehalis, imprisoned in a little cell, suffering for lack of proper ventilation, fighting live rats and enduring the odor of dead ones. Sheehan and Smith had been found innocent of connection with the death of Warren O. Grim, and then were immediately rearrested charged with conspiring to murder Arthur McElfresh, another slain Armistice Day parader.
I asked Sheriff Berry if I could see the interior of the jail.
“Who are you investigatin’ jails for?” he demanded suspiciously.
“For the labor press,” I said.
“It won’t be necessary for you to see the inside of this jail,” he decreed. “It ain’t the kind of place it ought to be, but I can’t help that. I’ve tried to get the county commissioners to fix things, but they won’t loosen up.”
Already I knew that Berry would not permit the prisoners to receive any copies of the Seattle Union Record or any other labor paper.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 15, 1919
Seattle, Washington – Union Record Editor and Staff Arrested
From The Nation of December 13, 1919:
A Newspaper Confiscated—And Returned
By ANNA LOUISE STRONG
[Part II of II.]
Spokane Spokesman-Review November 15, 1919
Meantime [as more facts came to light concerning the Centralia outrage] The Record had been seized. Two hours before the seizure the other competing newspapers knew of it, and proclaimed it on the streets. Reporters, camera men, and moving-picture men accompanied the deputies. The editor, and the president and secretary of the board of trustees, were arrested and later released on bail. The employees were cleared out of the building which was then searched. Much material was carted away. The seizure occurred while the presses were turning out the regular home edition, and their work was stopped. The staff was told, rather vaguely, that the place was closed. Later in the evening the proprietors again obtained possession of the plant, with the assurance that there was no intention of holding it. However, on the following day, when the main edition was on the press, the marshal again arrived, stated that the plant was indefinitely closed, and gave the employees half an hour to clear out. The first act of one of the deputies was to take down the telephone, call up a competing newspaper, and announce “We’ve shut her down tight.”
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 14, 1919
Seattle, Washington – Union Record, Confiscated and Returned
From The Nation of December 13, 1919:
A Newspaper Confiscated—And Returned
By ANNA LOUISE STRONG
[Part I of II.]
SEATTLE has a way of making labor history. The third week in November saw not only the confiscation and later the return of the property of The Seattle Union Record, the mouthpiece of organized labor in that city, but produced as by-products several actions new in the history of unionism. The newspaper’s plant was seized without warning by the United States Attorney, held throughout a week’s time through various court delays, and at last returned on order of the court, which stated that it was illegally held. The mailing of the paper was held up for over a week by the local postmaster on the ground that he was “in doubt” concerning its mailability.
The Seattle Star of November 13, 1919
Meantime, the labor movement of the city, which was obviously expected by the authorities to indicate its anger in some storm or upheaval, remained calm and self-controlled, and began voting a day’s pay per member for “a bigger, better Union Record.” Several unions displayed spontaneously the extent to which solidarity of feeling has transcended in Seattle the actual craft lines of organization. The union teamsters, sent to The Union Record office to haul away the confiscated files, records, and papers, obstinately refused to handle them until the marshal appealed to the secretary of The Union Record’s board of control, whom he had just arrested. Mr. Rust then went out and told the teamsters “It’s all right, boys; go ahead.” And they went ahead.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 29, 1919
The History of the Seattle General Strike: Organization
From The Ohio Socialist of March 26, 1919:
THE SEATTLE GENERAL STRIKE
(HERE IS THE HISTORY OF THE SEATTLE GENERAL STRIKE
AS APPEARED IN THE SEATTLE UNION RECORD)
—–
Four days before the strike actually took place, the meetings of the General Strike Committee began. With their first session on Sunday, Feb. 2, 1919, authority over the strike passed from the Central Labor Council, which had sent out the call, and from the Metal Trades Council which had asked it, and was centered in a committee of over 300 members, elected from 110 local unions and the Central Labor Council, for the express purpose of managing the strike.
The first meeting was called in order at 8:35 in the morning and continued is session until 9:30 that evening, with short intermissions for meals. From this time on until the close of the strike, there were meetings daily and at almost all hours of day and night, of either this General Strike Committee, or of the Executive Committee of fifteen which it delegated some of its authority. The volume of business transacted was tremendous; practically every aspect of the city’s life came before the strike committee for some decision.
A general strike was seen, almost at once, to differ profoundly from any of the particular strikes with which the workers of Seattle were familiar. It was not enough, as some of the hasty enthusiasts declared, to “just walk out.” The strikers were at once brought face to face with the way in which the whole community, including their own families, is inextricably tied together. If life was not to be made unbearable for the strikers themselves, problems of management of selection and exemption had to take the place of the mush simpler problem of keeping everyone out of work.
—————
—————
—————
—————
—————
———-
———-
